Trent Brooks opened Brooks' Place BBQ in a little trailer in the parking lot of an Ace Hardware store. Trent Brooks opened Brooks' Place BBQ in a little trailer in the parking lot of an Ace Hardware store.

Trent Brooks opened Brooks' Place BBQ in a little trailer in the parking lot of an Ace Hardware store. Trent Brooks opened Brooks' Place BBQ in a little trailer in the parking lot of an Ace Hardware store.

"I'm not a fan of the word 'pitmaster,' " Trent Brooks tells me, referring to the men and women who actually make barbecue. "Because once you become master of something, there's no room for improvement."

Brooks' story and his barbecue are typical of a new generation of pitmasters emerging on the Houston scene. His barbecue is focused on the craft of smoking meats and all of the sacrifice and hard work that entails. His story is an example of necessity: a 9-to-5 warehouse worker becoming a full-time purveyor of Texas barbecue.

Brooks grew up in the Acres Homes neighborhood and graduated from Scarborough High School. Acres Homes has always been a hotbed of "shade-tree barbecue," where residents drag their barbecue pit onto the driveway, cook barbecue all night and then sell it to friends and neighbors on the weekends for extra money. It's an enduring tradition of this working-class, African-American neighborhood.

Brooks' father, Freddie, cooked barbecue on the weekends there when Trent was growing up (he still does). An ideal story line would be that Brooks was right there next to his dad every weekend, faithfully learning the art and science of smoked meats. But it didn't work out that way. "I couldn't stand it!" says Brooks, "Too much work. I wanted to have fun and play." He does admit to helping out on occasion and learning the techniques his father used.

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After high school, Brooks held several jobs before landing a job at a gas-compression company in Cypress. Four years into that job, after buying a house and experiencing family health issues, Brooks found himself in need of extra income. He'd recently purchased a backyard barbecue pit and decided to import the shade-tree barbecue tradition to Cypress. In 2009, he pulled his smoker into a shopping-center parking lot and sold barbecue on weekends. It was so successful, he started thinking about doing it full time.

In 2010, he bought a bare-bones trailer, parked it in his driveway and upgraded it to legal specifications. While driving to his day job, he passed an Ace Hardware store near Barker Cypress and FM 529 in Cypress. It was a big parking lot and visible from the street, so he approached the owner and made arrangements to sell his barbecue there. He eventually quit his day job, officially opened Brooks' Place BBQ and has been selling barbecue there ever since.

In 2013, things changed when a local pastor and barbecue enthusiast picked up his regular order. He mentioned that Texas Monthly magazine would soon come out with its best-barbecue list. Brooks thought nothing of it. "I'm in a trailer in an Ace Hardware parking lot. No way I can even be in the same category with those people." That didn't matter. Brooks' Place BBQ made the list.

Overnight, Brooks went from cooking six briskets a day to 16. A month later, Houston Chronicle restaurant critic Alison Cook gave his food a favorable review and the crowds got even bigger.

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The notoriety is deserved. Brooks easily makes some of the best barbecue in the area. His brisket is emphatically Central Texas-style with a simple dry rub, crunchy bark and deep smoke flavor. He's got some North Carolina-style pulled pork on the menu, and his ribs and links draw inspiration from the East Texas-style of his family roots in Acres Homes. He always serves sauce on the side.

Unlike some new barbecue joints that are capitalizing on the popularity of Texas barbecue, Brooks started making great barbecue to support his family, satisfy his customers and to be his own boss. He makes sure people understand that the glamorous life of a pitmaster is really just a myth. It's hard work - just like the kind he avoided as a kid in Acres Homes but that he now loves and embraces.